Beijing, China − Irdeto announced its latest anti-piracy success with partner Alibaba Group, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies, where over 5,000 online advertisements for pirate devices from 71 manufacturers and suppliers on Alibaba.com were identified and taken down in one month.

The rise of illegal devices being manufactured in and distributed from China has contributed to an overall increase in pay media piracy. To combat piracy in China and around the world, Alibaba Group has been working closely with Irdeto since 2013 when a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed to formally support and reconfirm commitment to anti-piracy initiatives on the Alibaba Group e-commerce platforms.

The pirate devices receive content via Internet servers that are typically hosted in jurisdictions where it is difficult to enforce intellectual property rights. Therefore, addressing the problem at source and preventing the supply of these devices proves to be an effective deterrent to the pirates and ensures that the rights holders get paid for the content they own.

As part of the MOU, Irdeto conducted investigations into Alibaba.com advertisers that market and sell these pirate devices and notified Alibaba.com to have their advertisements removed. Alibaba.com played a pre-emptive role in assisting with the removal of 5,389 ads marketing pirate devices from 71 manufacturers and suppliers that offered content from Irdeto’s pay TV operator customers.

“We thank Alibaba for leading the way and supporting anti-piracy measures in China. Pay TV operators and content owners rely on a wide range of technologies, automated mechanisms and global collaboration networks to disrupt broadcast and online piracy. Through our partnership with Alibaba, we are able to stop illegal devices at the point they are being sold and protect the revenues of our pay media customers,” said Rory O’Connor, VP Services, Irdeto.